Orli
Feminine · “Light is mine”
Orli is a Hebrew sentence in four letters: or is light and li is to me, so the name means light is mine. Modern Israeli naming produces a great many of these compact possessive compounds, and this is one of the most direct.
How old is the name Orli?
Orli first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Orli is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Orli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Orli most popular?
Orli peaked in 2024, reaching #4669 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 885 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ʾôr to Orli
The story of Orli
When Hebrew was rebuilt as a spoken language, its speakers made names the way the language makes words: by compounding transparent elements. A set of women's names built on a noun plus the possessive -li appeared in Israel from the mid-twentieth century — Orli, Shirli, Talli, Ilanit — and they are among the most characteristically modern Israeli names. Orly is also the name of a Paris airport, which is coincidental and unrelated. American records show Orli from the 1990s with Israeli and American Jewish families and a peak as recent as 2024, which places it among the newest names in the ranked list.
Meaning
Light is mine; my light
From Hebrew ʾôr, light, with the first-person possessive suffix -li, to me. The reading is settled and transparent to any Hebrew speaker. The same construction gives Orly, Shirli — song is mine — Talli and Gilli. It is a modern Israeli formation rather than a biblical name.
How the name formed
- ʾôr
- Orli
Related forms: אורלי · Orly
Pronouncing Orli
OR-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first in American use. Hebrew puts the weight on the second, or-LEE, which is the usual Israeli saying.
Nicknames for Orli
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 202429 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4669reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −24.1%22 in 2025, from 29
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Orli in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אורלי in Hebrew — transliteration
- Orly in Hebrew — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California.
Orlis among us
people named Orli are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Orli
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Orli
- #5554
- Orli on the 2025 chart
- #909
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Orli went to 22 girls in 2025, but Orly is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 51, which makes it the 909th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,645 places above the chart.
- Orly29
- Orli22
About 1 girl in 31,515 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 73,058 for Orli itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Belkis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Orli's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Belkis climbed just as high around 1989, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Belkis's path sketches the road Orli is walking now.
Orli sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Orli beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Orli in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, transparent and unusually lovely.
- Four letters and two syllables travel anywhere.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- Hebrew and English put the stress in different places.
- Orli and Orly are both in use and the second is also a Paris airport.
- It is unfamiliar outside Jewish and Israeli communities.
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What they receive
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Orli
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Orlis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Orli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Orli?
- Orli is one of 2 recorded spellings. Orly is the more common one — 29 births in 2025 against 22 for Orli.
- How popular is the name Orli in 2025?
- Orli ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Orli?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Orli — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Orli with classmates?
- Orli will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Orli
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eda#5554 · Phebe#5554 · Felicia#5554 · Audie#5554 · Maryellen#5554 · Warren#5554 · Ruthann#5554 · Nettie#5554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Orli? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Orli and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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